Employers Will Be Able To Get Their Domestic Help Insured At Rs 200 A Month

This is good news for those people who work as domestic helps in households in India. The government at centre is soon going to roll out a scheme under which employers can get their maids, servants, cooks, and even drivers medically insured. For this they will have to doll out a mere Rs 200 / month. This adds up to Rs 2400 annually. The medical insurance scheme will not only benefit the domestic help but also his or her entire family.

Highlights of the scheme:

It will be a voluntary scheme, meaning to say that the employer can get a medical insurance of his or her domestic help done if the employer so wants. Just like Prime Minister Modi appealed to those above the poverty line to give up their LPG subsidies, he will also appeal to the employers to get the medical insurance for their domestic helps.

A government official revealed to Economic Times on conditions of anonymity that the Central Labour Ministry will issue a notification regarding the medical insurance scheme around 15th August.

The scheme will be launched on a pilot basis in Delhi and Hyderabad. It is estimated that around 60 lakh to 1 crore domestic helps will benefit under this scheme.

Under the scheme the domestic help will get free medical treatment at the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) hospitals and dispensaries.

From the first day of the medical insurance, the insurance person and his family members can avail of free treatment at these wards. However, they will not receive any cash.

The employers who wish to register their employees under the scheme will first have to certify the domestic help and his / her residence. This will be verified using the Adhar card of the domestic help following which he or she will be enrolled to receive the benefits of the medical insurance.

A move ahead from the old Act:The Employees’ State Insurance Act (1948) was the first major legislation in India to benefit the workers under any social security scheme in independent India. This Act covered several health-related eventualities like sickness, maternity, temporary or permanent disablement, occupational disease or death due to injury at work place, all of which could lead to partial or total loss of income earning capacity of the workers.

The new scheme in the offing will be implemented by modifying the ESI Act (1948) so as to benefit the domestic workers. This comes within the ambit of the national policy for domestic workers, which is now being the final shape by labour ministry at the centre.

The Logical Indian community hails this good news to provide a security blanket to one of the most invisibilised and hence vulnerable sections of Indian economy. We urge our readers to get their domestic workers enrolled under the oncoming medical insurance scheme. After all, giving Rs 200 a month does not pinch anyone’s pockets!

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Be A True Ally To The Women In Your Life #ShareTheLoad

Women empowerment is one of the most important words of the present times. It is not a mere phrase but it rather represents a movement, which has been pending for the longest time. However, many have a misconception that educating women, “letting” them work, etc. is all that women empowerment is all about. However, the concept of women empowerment is more of an umbrella term. It intends to involve society as a whole, including men.

We always encourage and applaud a woman who successfully balances both work life and her household. But won’t it be easy for that woman if the load of the work is shared? We see that in our society a woman’s primary role is seen as that of a homemaker. At the same time, her personal likes, aspirations, and dreams are forced to be put on the backburner because of the undue expectation that she has to single handedly manage the household while balancing her career. To give credit where it is due, the times are changing. Men and women of the house are increasingly sharing the workload. However, one can also not turn a blind to the fact that a lot more still needs to be done.

Driving home the same concept, popular brand Ariel has come up with brilliant communication.

The video shows a mother speaking to her married daughter over the phone, all whilst cleaning the mess her son has created. She is absolutely heartbroken when her daughter says that she plans to quit her job since juggling both a demanding job and her household has become too overwhelming. It is during this time that she realises that while she and her husband as parents left no stone unturned to give an all-round upbringing to their daughter, they somewhere forgot to teach their son some basic life skills like cooking and doing laundry so that they grow out to be equally responsible in doing household chores. This is not a story of just one family, but of families across the country. These are some things which everyone must know, not for any other reason, but simply because these are basic tasks which are absolutely essential to survive. And, they make you capable to be equal partners tomorrow!

As Ariel raises an important question-is household work only a woman’s job? We need to ask ourselves the same question. A recent study revealed that the unpaid work done by women around the world amounted to 43 times the annual turnover of Apple Inc. It is high time we share the load and change the narrative that household work is the “duty” of a woman. As the video shows, contributing to the household work is not only a daughter’s work, but the son must contribute his bit too. It is also important for the parents to instil a sense of responsibility in their children, irrespective of their gender so that at any juncture of their lives, they are not completely dependent on another person for basic tasks like these. Ariel has been consistently driving this message and addressing the inequality within households since 2015. The Logical Indian applauds Ariel for coming up with such a brilliant video for depicting such an important concept.